INTO THE WILD
Into The Wild - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Into The Wild | |||||
| By: Sandra Nori, Issue 47 – Winter 11 | |||||
| (Safari Kenya) | |||||
| WITHOUT HESITATION, AT A MOMENT’S NOTICE, SANDRA NORI JUMPED ON A PLANE TO NAIROBI FOR A CHANCE TO GLIMPSE THE WILDLIFE ON THE PLAINS OF KENYA. It was a last minute invitation, with not a day spare to get ready. It was inconvenient and meant rearranging things at short notice, but there was never any doubt that I would go. Why? Because it was Africa. Even though I had been there some 15 months earlier, I hadn’t been to Kenya before and I’d always wanted to see the open plains of the Maasai Mara. The great thing about Kenya is you can do game drives virtually out of Nairobi. In fact, when you fly in or out on a domestic flight if you look carefully you can see game just out of the city in the Nairobi National Park, only seven kilometres from the centre of the city. The famous Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club is a convenient three-hour drive from Nairobi. It is beautifully located, with the snowcapped Mount Kenya looming in front of you. The club was started by American movie star William Holden and became a favourite haunt of Hollywood stars in its day. It’s best described as a luxury country club style resort, with the equator running right through middle of the courtyard and the aptly named Equatorial suite. It has a golf course, a pool and deck and magnificent birdlife right on the doorstep, and the activities available include horse riding as well as game drives. When I arrived the property was cool because of its high altitude, but it is the altitude that makes possible the magnificent views. Here the turn down service includes the lighting of the open fire in your room while you’re at dinner, and the placement of a hot water bottle in your bed. Our next stop was the Lewa Conservancy. Seventy-five per cent of Kenya’s wildlife is outside National Parks on private and community land run as private conservancies by private individuals. Conservancies involve entire local communities in preserving wildlife and the communities benefit from revenue sharing. Typically wildlife conservancies encourage high income, low impact tourism and only environmentally responsible lodges and camps are allowed to operate within the conservancies. The conservancies support local schools near the camps and other small community projects. The lodges and camps inside conservancies employ and train staff from the local area and use environmentally friendly best practices to manage the properties. Unlike the national parks, guests can go off-road in a private conservancy, though you would never realise you are not in a national park. No wonder Prince William chose the slopes of Mount Kenya overlooking the Lewa Conservancy to propose to the Duchess of Cambridge. We saw some magnificent sights there. Just getting to our accommodation was a game drive in itself. On our way to bed for the night, we called in to see a mother cheetah and her two four-month-old cubs. We sat transfixed for 20 minutes while 20 metres away they played with each other, cuddled and jumped on mum’s tail. Unlike other large cats, cheetah rarely rest, and while mum was quite relaxed with us there, she never quite gave up her sentry duty. We also saw zebra, giraffe, elephants and lions, including a newly post partum and first time lion mum sunning herself in the last moments of proper sunlight, her less than six-week-old cubs still hidden from the pride. We saw Vervet monkeys playing up, baboons, warthogs and lionesses in the sunset, alert, walking at a brisk pace on the nightly round for a feed. Next stop, the Maasai Mara. After a one-hour flight we were greeted still covered in a thick hide. The cubs, while not game to growl at their mother or aunt who were also feeding, did growl at each other. I don’t know how they could breathe, their heads seemed to be tucked right into the carcass. One cub spent the whole afternoon fruitlessly trying to eat the hippo’s feet. The cubs would come up for air and just slump like little drunks and snooze for five minutes before tucking in again with gusto. We’d seen enough and were heading into the lower light of sunset when we saw one of the most astonishing things. We were about two metres away from the hippo carcass and we could see what the lions could not. It was a jackal, hidden by the rest of the foliage and thicket, coming towards the carcass. It was about one metre away. Such a game move. We watched as it took two steps forward, then one step backwards, slinking forward again then back, thinking better of it. Food was so close yet so far. All it needed was one little chomp, but given its place in the pecking order, this was a very plucky jackal, but a smart one because it knew that once the hyenas moved in it would be third in line. It was trying to get in early, you could see the dilemma on its face, in its gait, its whole being. It was taking a calculated risk, then all of a sudden one of the cubs spotted it. Immediately the cub was in perfect stalk pose as if it were an experienced adult. Its entire demeanour changed. It had the characteristic slight twitch in its back signalling that it was ready to spring forth. This cub was twice the size of the jackal. It was a tense moment for us. Would the cub spring? Suddenly it did make its move but, mid-spring, it flopped on to its side and then its back, fast asleep. In a split second it had gone from noble beast on the hunt to “out to it”, its tummy looking as if it had been stuffed with pillows. If I have ever witnessed something that would make David Attenborough envious, this was it. I looked out over the dry savannah and for the sake of the animals I hoped for rain. Every type of creature was there but only in small numbers as most of them were still on the Serengeti in Tanzania, waiting for the rains. I tried to imagine what these plains in Kenya would be like in a couple of months time during the migration, as the wildlife make their way from the Serengeti to the Mara. I won’t be wondering for too long because I’ll be back to see it for myself. | |||||
| When To Go | |||||
| You can go to Kenya any time of the year, however the experience will vary. The best viewing times are from June to February, with the annual wildebeest migration commencing in July. | |||||
| Getting There | |||||
| Air Mauritius flies from Melbourne to Mauritius via Kuala Lumpur three times a week, and from Perth to Mauritius via Kuala Lumpur twice a week. There are two Air Mauritius flights from Mauritius to Nairobi a week. Fares start from A$1,645 return for economy class and A$4,175 for business class. | |||||
| airmauritius.com | |||||
| Where To Stay FAIRMONT MOUNT KENYA SAFARI CLUB | |||||
| +254 20 226 5000 | |||||
| Rates: from US$329 (about A$308) per night for a Fairmont King room to US$729 (abour A$684) per night for the William Holden Suite. | |||||
| fairmont.com/kenyasafariclub | |||||
| MARA NGENCHE CAMP | |||||
| +254 20 445 0035/36 | |||||
| Rates: from US$550 (about A$516) per night per person sharing for full board accommodation in a luxury safari tent, includes game drives, airstrip transfers and drinks. | |||||
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